liberties (as the Gallican); there is no particular regulation in Ireland, as to appeals to Rome, such appeals being regulated by the general Canons of the Church. J. T. TROY, R. C. Metropolitan of Dublin. EDWARD DILLON, R. C. Metropolitan of Tuam. For the Lord Viscount Castlereagh, &c. Summary of a Correspondence with the Right Hon. Lord Hobart and Lord Viscount Castlereagh, on the subject of the Roman Catholic Clergy, &c., relating principally to Ireland, in the years 1799 and 1800.1 In attempting the civilization of the great mass of population in the kingdom of Ireland, nothing is likely to contribute so much to this desirable end as certain established regulations dictated by a wise and liberal policy in favour of the Roman Catholic Clergy. Whether the views of the Imperial Parliament may be directed to extend the political privileges of the Catholics, or to confine them within the present limited toleration, certain regulations are necessary, no less for the convenience and eventual security of the established Government in Church and State, than for the credit and comfort of the Prelacy and Clergy of the Roman Communion. A Noble Lord [Lord Hobart] who filled an office of the first State responsibility in Ireland, with distinguished credit to himself and benefit to the public, has candidly admitted that "this subject has never been considered in that enlightened view which its importance deserved." 1 Though, in this paper, from the instructive pen of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, there are some slight repetitions from communications of his previously introduced, I have preferred giving it without mutilation. In almost every country where the Christian Religion is professed, the Civil Magistrate interferes in the appointment of the superior clergy, and wisely so, as the power and influence inseparable from such appointments may be used to the welfare or destruction of the State. The popular religion of Ireland is not the established religion, but its Pastors have an incalculable influence and control on the minds and habits of the people, and every attempt towards the civilization of the lower classes of the Roman Catholic communion must be fruitless, unless carried on with the concurrence of their Clergy. The ordinances and regulations best adapted to this end will naturally be suggested by a view of the situation of the Roman Catholic Clergy in Great Britain and Ireland, as they now stand, after the last Acts made in favour of those professing that communion in either kingdom, in the years 1791, &c.; for it is presumed that no material regulations could be consistently made in the Imperial Parliament in favour of the Irish Roman Catholic Clergy exclusively, except in cases where their situation differs from those of Great Britain. In England, the Act 31 of the present King, ch. 32, 1791-2, tolerates the erection of chapels, schools, &c.; the full exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion to all who shall have taken the qualified oath of allegiance therein prescribed; various Acts from the 1st of Elizabeth, inflicting pains and penalties, are repealed in favour of such persons; yet the 13th of Elizabeth, ch. 2, stands unnoticed, and of course unrepealed by that Act, and is still held out in terrorem even to Conformists under the Act of 1791-2. By the 13th of Elizabeth, c. 2, sec. 3, " Any person who shall get from the See of Rome any bull, writing, or instrument, written or printed, containing any thing, matter, or cause whatever, shall be deemed guilty of High Treason." And the importation of beads, crosses, &c. &c., offering them to be worn or used by any person, subjects the offender to the penalties of premunire; yet, bulls, writings, and instruments from the See of Rome are in various cases essential to the exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion, such as the renewal every third year of the extraordinary faculties granted to the British Roman Catholic Prelates officiating as Vicars Apostolicfor dispensations in cases of Matrimony within the second degree, and in a variety of other cases not necessary to enumerate, but which necessarily exist in conformity to the fundamental discipline of the Church of Rome. Those who are alarmed at the possible encroachments of the See of Rome contend in favour of this Act of the 13th of Elizabeth, that it is the only barrier we have against the introduction of Papal Rescripts hostile to our constitution. Yet the prohibition in mass of all bulls, briefs, &c., from Rome, militates against the letter and spirit of the Act of 1791-2; for the exercise of the Roman Catholic Religion cannot be said to be tolerated, if anything essential to it is proscribed. But, in fact, the absurd severity of the Act of the 13th of Elizabeth has defeated itself (as unnecessary rigour ever does), and the result is, that we stand more exposed to the inroad of mischievous innovation from the See of Rome, whenever it may be disposed to exercise it, than if that law never had been enacted, or, in fact, than any other country in Europe, as humanity revolts from the execution of the law itself, and we have no alternative to qualify it. In England, therefore, it only operates against the Government, and great incidental embarrassment did actually result from the doubts upon the construction of that Act at a moment of the most serious importance, [1793,] when all communication with Rome was considered as prohibited. It does not appear that either in Scotland or Ireland (vide Appendix A.) such a prohibition exists, and certainly, both in Great Britain and Ireland, the importation of bulls, briefs, and other rescripts from Rome are in daily occurrence. The regulation naturally suggested by this view of the case is sanctioned by the sound policy of other States, and offers a practicable and rational barrier against the introduction of exceptionable briefs and rescripts from Rome in the place of visionary guards and provisions, impracticable from their sanguinary tendency. The privileges of the Gallican Church, ever watchful and jealous of the encroachments of Rome, depended principally on two maxims. 1st. That the Pope had no authority to order anything in general, or in particular, in which the civil rights of the kingdom were concerned. 2ndly. That, notwithstanding the Pope's supremacy was acknowledged in cases purely spiritual, yet, in other respects, his power was limited by the decrees of the ancient councils of the realm. In 1482 the Supreme Council of Provence enacted that "No letters coming from foreign jurisdictions, though only in spirituals, should be executed without the ratification and registry of the court." And this practice was universally adopted by the Supreme Courts throughout the kingdom. Every bull, brief, &c. from Rome was presented, within a stated time, to one of the Courts of Parliament, where it was examined, lest it contained anything hostile to the privileges of the Gallican Church, or to the temporal rights of the Crown; it afterwards received what was called "L'Annexe," or the official certificate, and then became in force as a matter of mere Ecclesiastical regulation. The Calvinistical Church of the United Provinces governed itself on similar principles, certainly not less jealous of the encroachments of Rome than the most scrupulous British Protestant. The appointment even of a Roman Catholic Curé was certified by the Arch-priest to the magistrate of the district, and, if objected to, another was appointed. In adverting to this regulation in the United Provinces, a material oversight of the Act of 1791-2 of the British Parliament naturally occurs. Any Roman Catholic Priest or Schoolmaster, who shall take the Oath prescribed by that Statute, may demand his enrolment by the clerk of the Sessions, who is required to give him a certificate as a licensed preacher, or teacher, without any reference to a testimonial of character from any superior of his own communion, or from his neighbours, &c. The measures and regulations indicated as a corrective to the excess of caution, on the one hand, and the omission on the other, are 1st. The repeal of so much of the Act of the 13th of Elizabeth, c. 2, as interdicts the receipt of bulls, briefs, &c., and the importation of crosses, beads, &c., from Rome, and enacting in lieu thereof,-That all such instruments from the See of Rome, or from any foreign authority, exercising, or pretending to exercise, any mandatory power within the imperial realm of Great Britain, &c., should, under the penalty of premunire, be delivered to his Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, within a stated time of its receipt, and by him, when thought necessary, should be laid before his Majesty in council, to which council such Prelates should be summoned as were of the council. If, on examiration, the said instruments contained only the ordinary faculties or regulations of Roman discipline, they should be endorsed by the clerk in council, or any other proper officer, and returned to the person from whom they were received, as containing nothing contrary to the establishment in Church and State. 2ndly. That every Priest, Schoolmaster, or Schoolinistress, applying to be licensed, should, in addition to the Oath of Allegiance prescribed by the Act of 1791-2, produce a certificate from one or two respectable persons, avowing a personal knowledge of their character for a sufficient time, attesting that they believed them to be persons well attached to the civil constitution of the State, which certificate should be countersigned by a magistrate of the county or district, having also a VOL. III. G G |